Alexis Denisof Talks About His Role as “The Other” in The Avengers

A lot of people don’t even know that Welsey Wyndam-Pryce Alexis Denisof was in The Avengers. But oh, he was. He played “The Other” in the first of The Avengers‘ post-feature scenes, but it was hard to tell it was him underneath the layers of intense alien costuming. Seeing as we always love us some Denisof, we were psyched to see he’d opened up to the press about his role in the film. 

Sandy Rivers Denisof has been seen in many-a Whedon work–he got his start in the Whedonverse as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and stole the hearts of fans ten times over when he reprised the role in Angel. He had a recurring character in Dollhouse, and he’s playing Benedick in Whedon’s upcoming take on Much Ado About Nothing.

Basically, he’s one of the top names of Joss Whedon‘s speed dial, for which we are eternally grateful. In an interview with MTV News Denisof admitted to his status as a Whedon regular:

“Normally if something is on his mind he’ll call me about it. And of course I’m always excited. It wouldn’t matter what he was doing, I would want to be part of it.”

Surprisingly, though, this connection was not the driving force that got him the role in Avengers:

“I received from my agent a single page with some lines that made absolutely no sense to me, and a character called Man 2. And I was like, ‘What the eff is this?’…They sent all this legal stuff I had to sign about not saying anything to anyone.”

He also had to adapt to something a lot of viewers never give a second thought to–the general discomfort of such elaborate costumes:

“We had to cast all these parts of my body that were going to be wearing pieces of formed prosthetic – my arms, my chest, my face…Once I put [the special teeth] in I had a very distinct lisp and I didn’t think that was how he should sound, so I had to practice with those for quite a few months to get to where I could even talk…

“I couldn’t see a thing. Pretty hard to move, pretty hard to go to the bathroom – a lot of things you don’t think about until you’re all stitched up into a costume like that.”

Despite the discomfort, Denisof was happy to have the role, and to be a part of what a lot of people think of as his long-time friend’s “big break” into big-budget, blockbuster films.

“Even when I was shooting it I was excited. To see that huge stage and to be in that place with my dear friend Joss and watch him doing what I know so well he can do on that scale… I was thrilled to be part of it. And then to see it – it blew me away.”

B’awwwww.

We don’t know about you, but we here at The Mary Sue are pretty excited to see where exactly Whedon and the Marvel gang are going to go with the characters of Thanos and The Other. We have a feeling it’ll be pretty big (and multi-movie-spanning), which means we could be seeing Denisof reprising his role sometime soon.

(via MTV Splashpage) (Image via Spectacle)

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